Law enforcement officials in Turkey and Morocco arrested two men in connection with the recent release of the Zotob worm, the FBI announced Local authorities arrested 18-year-old Farid Essebar in Morocco and 21-year-old Atilla Ekici in Turkey on Thursday, according to the FBI. The U.S. law enforcement agency believes that Essebar coded the Zotob worm and the Mytob bot software, on which the worm was based, for Ekici, who allegedly paid the programmer.

The creator and several buyers of a keylogging software package marketed as a means of checking up on loved ones, have been indicted in the US for accessing computer systems without authorisation, the Associated Press reports.

The European Parliament should pass a resolution urging the European Patent Office to ensure that it complies with the existing rules on the patentability of computer-related inventions, according to leading campaigner Florian Mueller.

Diamonds have been usurped as the world's hardest material, thanks to researchers in Germany, who have made a new material by compressing carbon-60 molecules. They have dubbed their new form of carbon "aggregated diamond nanorods".

Broadband over powerline (BPL) is hardly a new approach to bringing high speed access to inaccessible parts, whether these are villages or corners of the home or office. But it has suffered from low vendor interest and various technical hitches, until now, when it is finally taking its place alongside wireless technologies as a way to expand broadband access cost effectively.

The UK market for broadband wireless services is set to become highly complex – and a possible proving ground for various technologies and business models – as the main holder of 3.5GHz spectrum, Pipex, shows its hand. Pipex holds the national license for 3.5GHz spectrum but, to date, has scarcely used the asset, leaving the PCCW-owned UK Broadband the only significant player in licensed broadband wireless services with its nationwide 3.4GHz holdings.

A new 'supercomputing' centre aims to address the growing need among Ireland's researchers for computational resources The Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC), which will be based in Dublin, is set to begin operations on 1 September, thanks to a €2.6m Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) grant.

The problem of what to do with clapped-out electronic equipment continues to tax the EU's best minds. The alternatives are straightforward enough: you can take it to be lovingly dismantled and recycled; or you can simply bury it. The former, while highly desirable, is expensive; the latter, an ultimately unsustainable option as vast tracts of countryside are converted into poisoned dumping grounds.

Brandishing its newly-discovered motto: "We're customer-centric", giant software company Oracle is making an all-out bid to take over the running of the world's mobile phone operators, by pulling all their multiple applications into a single stack.

UK ministers are considering plans to make downloading violent sexual images from the net a criminal offence. Distributing footage depicting rapes or other so-called extreme pornography is illegal (under the Obscene Publications Act 1959) but current laws do not allow prosecution for simple possession. This contrasts with laws on the possession of images of child abuse.

Infineon will provide memory chips and a wireless controller for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, the two companies both said yesterday, but it's the "advanced security chip" it will also produce that will cause more controversy.

Those readers who think that Hurricane Katrina is just about the worst thing that can happen to an honest, God-fearing American would do well to consider that your house blowing down is as nothing compared to the terrible calamity which has befallen the owner of the "Julie" devil doll - a porcelain manifestation of pure evil now available on eBay to anyone with the courage to face the truly apocalyptic consequences of making a successful bid.

Ingram Micro Europe has set up a business team to drive sales of mobile phones and other wireless products. Team members are Mark Moons, who joins the distie giant from Dangaard Telecom, and Remco van der Panne, an internal appointment.

The Belfast Telegraph and Sinn Fein are leading a campaign to KO eBay auctions of DVD bare-knuckle gypsy-on-gypsy fight action. The newspaper has already provoked eBay.co.uk to pull two auctions for such material, although there is plenty of raw footage still available to eager punters, such as this sale (soon to be counted out, we have no doubt), which declares:

Parental control software is only partially effective and needs to be supplemented by parental supervision of their children's online activities, according to a study by Computing Which?, the consumer magazine.

Quocirca’s changing channelsSingle sign-on (SSO) can benefit the ease of use and security of IT in any organisation that expects its employees to use multiple applications, often from multiple locations. Until recently, it was mostly enterprises that have made use of SSO, but a new appliance, launched in Europe this year makes it practical for the mid-market and is an opportunity for resellers.

A Connecticut man faces up to 10 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to selling illicit copies of Windows source code. William P. Genovese, 28, of Meridan in Connecticut, this week confessed to unlawfully distributing stolen Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 source code over the net, CNN reports. He was caught last year after an unnamed security firm hired by Microsoft and an undercover FBI agent both made sample purchases through a site run by Genovese called illmob.org.

Pity if you will the poor old Chinese authorities in their fight to stem the tide of internet-provoked social destabilisation. First up, you've got Sister Furong flaunting herself like a two-bit hussy, then there's the thousands of addicts relentlessly gaming themselves into online degeneracy.